Bathroom door handles can be a hot bed for germs due to the poor hygiene practices of others. In an effort to avoid contact with the door handle, restroom patrons will often utilize any means available to open a restroom door and exist common necessary to avoid contact with the door handle. Quite often people use their feet to pry the door open, a paper towel to insulate their hands from the door handle, grasp the door in a location other than the handle, or even wait for another patron to enter, in an effort to avoid contact with the door altogether.
Automatic door openers are well-known in the art. They are generally operated by motion detectors and have bidirectional motors that both open and close the doors as a patron approaches the door. Essentially, the patron enters a zone in which a proximity detector detects the presence of the patron and automatically opens the door. There are certain drawbacks of these automatic door openers especially in the close quarters of a public restroom. For example, due to the small size of many public restrooms, proximity detectors can activate from almost any movement in the restroom. This results in the constant opening and closing of the restroom door due to the movement of the patron inside the restroom. In addition, patrons entering the restroom from the outside will often trigger the door to swing inward where another patron may be standing.
Attempts to remedy these drawbacks have been made by way of motors or opening mechanisms which stop progress when obstructed. While these improvements resolve a portion of the problems in that the patron in the path of the door is not injured, it is still inconvenient for all involved. Keeping convenience in mind, it is desirable to have a restroom door that can be opened both manually or automatically upon the affirmative action of a patron on the inside of the restroom. This allows the patron on the inside of the restroom to have a choice of automatically or manually opening the restroom door, as well as making the patron aware of the doors automatic opening so that any impedance thereof may be avoided.